Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

"I knew the Lakers would win Game 3."

"The two teams were tied 1:1 before, so the Lakers are naturally more advantageous after returning to their home court, so it's not surprising that they won Game 3."

"Although the Lakers are at a disadvantage in the interior without Lopez, the Lakers' perimeter and bench lineup have obvious advantages. And when comparing the two teams' trump cards, Zhuang Yu's performance in the past three games is obviously better than Leonard's."

"It seems that the Lakers have a higher chance of winning the finals, but I don't know how many games the finals will last."

"What I want to know is when Lopez will be able to return. Wasn't there news that he would return in Game 3 of the Finals? In the end, he didn't. I wonder if he will return in Game 4?"

"If Lopez can return in Game 4, he can make up for the Lakers' disadvantage in the interior, and the Raptors will probably be even more defeated."

Game 3 of the Finals has ended, but people are still discussing it with great interest.

Judging from the past three games, the Lakers are obviously stronger and have a good chance of winning the championship.

If that happens, the Lakers will win the NBA championship for two consecutive seasons.

Of course, only three games have passed in the finals, and the score between the two sides is only 1:2, with the Lakers only leading by one game. It is a little early to say who will win the championship.

However, the upcoming Game 4 of the Finals is very crucial.

If the Lakers can win Game 4, they will take the match point first and lead the Raptors 3:1.

There is no doubt that the Lakers' chances of winning the championship will be greatly increased.

But if the Lakers lose Game 4, the score between the two sides will become 2:2 and they will be back on the same starting line, then everything will be uncertain.

......

In the blink of an eye, another two days passed.

The fourth game of the finals is about to begin, and countless fans are paying attention to this game.

Staples Center.

People flocked into the stadium early, looking forward to the start of the game, wanting to know whether Lopez could return in this game and whether the Lakers could win the match point.

Of course, there are a lot of Raptors fans, too.

Some of them flew from Toronto specifically to support the Raptors, hoping that the Raptors could win Game 4 of the Finals and tie the score.

The competition officially started at 7:30 in the evening.

Coach Nurse breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Lopez was not on the Lakers' active list, and he also strengthened his defensive strategy for this game.

As soon as the game started, people noticed that the Raptors' defensive strategy today had changed significantly from the previous three games.

Today, the Raptors still focused on Zhuang Yu's three-pointers, preventing him from shooting outside the three-point line, but when Zhuang Yu chose to break through, the Raptors did not help defend. Only Gasol stood inside to prepare for defense, while others focused on Holiday, Korver, Anderson and others.

"Hey, what's wrong with the Raptors today? There's no help defense. Leonard alone can't defend Zhuang Yu, right?"

"I don't understand..."

In the audience, fans were also a little confused and didn't know what the Raptors were doing.

The Lakers were also a little surprised.

Several people exchanged glances, and Zhuang Yu tried a few times to confirm that the Raptors did reduce their help defense, but still focused on limiting their own three-pointers. In addition, they strengthened the defense against Holiday and Clarkson.

In the past, they would try their best to prevent Zhuang Yu from getting the ball. If they saw Zhuang Yu getting the ball, they would try their best to force Zhuang Yu to pass the ball and let other Lakers players play.

But today it's the other way around.

When other Lakers players had the ball, the Raptors no longer prevented them from passing the ball to Zhuang Yu. Instead, when Zhuang Yu broke through with the ball, they would consciously cut off the connection between Zhuang Yu and his teammates and prevent Zhuang Yu from passing the ball to teammates who had opportunities.

"Are you thinking you can't defend me, so you're just throwing in the towel and giving up on yourself?"

Zhuang Yu smiled secretly in his heart.

This is of course a joke. How could the Raptors give up on themselves? We can only say that they have readjusted their defensive strategy.

As for why the other party was like this, Zhuang Yu understood after thinking about it.

"You look down on me, do you think I can't defeat you all by myself?" Zhuang Yu narrowed his eyes and quickly came up with a plan, "Then let's give it a try."

......

"Shh!"

With a slight sound, Gasol Jr. made a hook shot.

The ball returned to the Lakers. Holiday dribbled the ball to the frontcourt and saw Zhuang Yu running back to get the ball. He immediately pushed the ball over with both hands.

Zhuang Yu held the ball and stood outside the three-point line. He gestured to his teammates, asking them to move the players away to allow him to play one-on-one.

Then, Zhuang Yu lowered his center of gravity and broke through in one step.

There was no probing, no unnecessary movements, just a smooth breakthrough. However, Zhuang Yu's move was very fast, and he passed Leonard by half a body length in an instant.

Leonard quickly moved sideways to get close to Zhuang Yu, and Zhuang Yu immediately dribbled the ball from behind and pulled it back. Before Leonard could readjust his steps, he had already jumped up.

Swish!

The ball goes in.

In fact, Leonard's reaction was already very quick.

He adjusted his steps immediately and pounced towards Zhuang Yu.

However, Zhuang Yu not only stepped back, but also shot very quickly, so fast that Leonard was helpless even with his advantage in height and wingspan.

"It's ok."

Coach Nas clapped his hands and encouraged the players: "It's okay to let Zhuang Yu score, just let him play alone. One person's strength cannot win the game."

It would be best if Zhuang Yu could handle all the Lakers' offense by himself. Humph, basketball is a sport for five people, not one.

Basketball is indeed a team sport, not an individual sport.

Zhuang Yu didn't plan to do it alone.

But isn't the Raptors' defensive strategy today forcing them to learn from Harden? Isn't it the "big core with the ball" style of play? Do they think they can't do it?

......

In a blink of an eye, the first half was over.

At this time, the Lakers were leading by 12 points.

Looking at the score, Coach Nash felt dizzy and hard to accept. How could the score be like this?

A group of Raptors players looked gray and dejected.

Today they changed their defensive strategy and strengthened the defense against Holiday, Anderson, Korver and others, hoping to force Zhuang Yu to fight alone. Even if Zhuang Yu scored a lot of points, he is not a god, and two fists cannot beat four hands. How strong can he be?

However, it turned out that they were wrong.

In just half time, Zhuang Yu had already scored 24 points.

But the point is not this, but that Zhuang Yu not only scored 24 points by himself, but also had 6 rebounds and 7 assists.

This is crazy.

At the end of the first half, Zhuang Yu was the best in the team in terms of points, rebounds and assists, which was a complete mess.

The Raptors never could have imagined that they wanted Zhuang Yu to play alone, but Zhuang Yu simply switched to a ball-holding core style of play. The ball was in his hands for almost the entire first half. Holiday, Korver, Anderson, Clarkson and others almost all became spot shooters.

In the first quarter, Holiday was still responsible for holding the ball and advancing the game, but he passed the ball to Zhuang Yu as soon as he got to the frontcourt. Then several people moved away and let Zhuang Yu play one-on-one. Either Zhuang Yu shot himself or passed the ball after breaking through.

Although the Raptors were consciously cutting off the connection between Zhuang Yu and his teammates and preventing him from passing the ball to the teammate in the best position, Holiday, Korver, Anderson and others were not made of wood and would just stand there motionless.

When they see Zhuang Yu break through, they will also move quickly, either cross-running, or using screens to get rid of him, or taking the opportunity to cut in...

And Zhuang Yu always manages to seize fleeting opportunities and pass the ball to his teammates.

So at the end of the first half, Zhuang Yu already had 7 assists.

"Oh... I was still wrong." Coach Nas sighed. He found that he still underestimated Zhuang Yu's strength.

I didn't expect Zhuang Yu to be able to score, rebound and assist so well.

What is the ball-holding core style of play? It means that the ball is in the hands of one person, and all tactics are centered on him. Other players play without the ball, find their own positions, run in the air, and wait for the ball holder to pass the ball to them and shoot immediately...

Russell Westbrook of the Thunder and James Harden of the Rockets both play with the ball as the core. What they have in common is that they can score, rebound and assist.

Zhuang Yu had never fought like this before, but that didn't mean he couldn't.

Ball-holding ability, scoring ability, rebounding ability, passing ability...Zhuang Yu is not inferior to Westbrook and Harden at all.

What Westbrook and Harden can do, Zhuang Yu can naturally do as well, so it is not difficult for him to play with the ball as the core, it just depends on whether he is willing to do it.

Of course, the ball-holding core style of play also has major drawbacks.

This style of play often relies too much on core players, weakening the role of role players. It requires core players to have extremely explosive performances.

The regular season was fine, but when it came to the playoffs, facing high-intensity defense, opponents' targeted help defense, and even double-teaming...

At this time, the core players may get into trouble, which will affect the entire team and ultimately lead to loss.

This is also the reason why Zhuang Yu didn’t play like that before.

But since some people play like this and some teams play like this, there must be a reason.

If this style of play is applied to a large sample and to a series like the playoffs, where both sides face off many times, it is easy for the opponent to break it down and target it.

In one game, you can fight against the opponent on your own and lead the team to victory, but what about the second, third, and fourth game?

Did you rely on your own strength to complete the entire seven-game series?

However, if it is only used in one game and there is an all-round core player, then this style of play has a great chance of winning.

What Coach Nash didn't expect was that Zhuang Yu was not only able to score points, rebounds and assists, but also did so with great efficiency.

The ball-holding core style of play is sometimes criticized for not being efficient enough, but Zhuang Yu was very efficient in the first half.

This must be related to the Raptors' defense today.

Today, the Raptors' defense against Zhuang Yu was not as good as in the previous three games.

Today, Zhuang Yu took more three-pointers than in the past three games, and made more three-pointers, so his scoring efficiency was naturally high.

Coach Nash took a deep breath, adjusted his mood, and clapped his hands to signal the players to look over.

He encouraged the players and then rearranged the game...